Q & A

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

So...there's this chair...

The chair you see below once belonged to my parents and I'm about to tell you all about it.

Are you ready?

Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnn............

Okay, okay - so it's not a like an episode of the Twilight Zone or anything. It's actually a simple blog post about a chair, my Mom's upholstered chair to be exact.

Back when my parents were newly married my Mom took some upholstery classes. She and my Aunt Pam attended six years of these classes held at a local college and they were trained under a Master Upholsterer. Over time, they both would both go on to become quite skilled upholsterers themselves. My Mom would ultimately reupholster many chairs throughout my childhood home, but this chair was/is special because it was, in fact, her first upholstered chair. After a visit with her over this past weekend, she humbly mentioned that she had received an, "A" on this chair...she made it sound like it was no big deal...but umm...tooootally big deal AND totally awesome!

Girlfriend had some mad skills.

But...you want to hear something sad about this chair?

Unfortunately, at some point, this particular chair found a home in the garage of my childhood home and there it sat, upside down and abandoned, for many years.

Fast forward to 2016 - maybe even a year or so before - this is when I really started to inquire about the chair as it had always intrigued me, even all the way back to my tweenager years.

I began to ask questions - Do you think the frame is in good condition? How big is it? Was it difficult to reupholster? Do you think I can learn to reupholster, especially having never had taken classes? How much is it to have a chair reupholstered?

The latter question sealed the chair's fate.

I ultimately found an adorable store about forty-five minutes away and called about having the chair re-done. I spoke with the owner of the store and she was amazing, although, she had warned me that it may cost me as much as buying a new chair, especially considering they use only high quality fabric. I thought, "Okay - that makes sense. I tooootally get it..." I was thinking maaaaaaybe $450 - $500 tops! I mean that's even more than I'd expect to pay for an entire IKEA Ektorp Chair AND slipcover.

Boy, was I wrong.

The estimate came back at $800-$1200. Ummmm...

Okay, so I was crushed. Yes, in some instances and for some people, go ahead, spend the moola and get your chair reupholstered, especially if the chair was expensive in the first place or it has been in the family for decades.

But this chair was my Mom's "practice chair" way back when she was just learning how to reupholster and as sentimental as it was/is to me, I just couldn't, and still can't, justify spending that much money on this particular chair.

So - are you ready for this?

I'm going to do it myself...and hopefully with a little help from that Mama of mine... ;) ;) ;)

But, you guys, I'm terrified. I've been watching some videos and I sit here paralyzed. I'm soooo nervous to get started and I'm petrified that I'm going to screw this up. Alas, I'm going to give it a go.

If I'm thinking realistically, I'm guessing this project is going to take me months...mooooooonths, people, months! Even if my Mom helps me here and there, it won't be constant because she lives hours away. Although, I know, with any help at all from my Mom, it'll be that much more special because she'll be teaching me bits and pieces and we'll be sort of tackling this project together - whether she wants to or not!Muhahaha!

Okay, so, wish me/us luck over here and if any of you have any good advice, I sure would love to hear it! In the meantime, I'll be slowly blogging about the process...which I've yet to begin...as well as watching as many YouTube videos as I can find on how to get started.

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